Saturday, October 5, 2013

Presently we are using Data Dynamics VB6 reporting system.
In the event of trying to get away from the VB technology we made an effort to
convert to SAP Crystal reporting system. Our architecture presently consists of
a report generator that is COM+ driven using ActiveX components that expose the
component to other servers on the network. This component is then used with the
HMISellerTool Classic ASP web application to create a contract
in a .pdf file format and save it on the Hard drive. The contract is then
exposed and delivered to the consumer for use.

Program Description:

Microsoft Reports a subset of the SSRS reporting system, is
a report generation system that can generate the reports that we need. This
tool is being considered in an effort to make a transition away from the VB6
component. There are two available tools that can be used to generate the forms
we need:

·Sql Server Report Builder

·Visual Studio

“Sql
Server Report Builder”

Report builder is a standalone
application that is a part of the Sequel Server group and resembles word as an
development IDE.You can use Report Builder to create reports
with multiple data regions (such as tables and charts), as well as data from
multiple data sources within a single report. Report Builder also supports
queries that run directly against relational data sources and multidimensional
data sources, as well as user-friendly data access via published report models.

Report Builder is a click-once
application which allows you to run it without actually installing it.When you install SQL Server Reporting
Services (SSRS) 2008 R2, you must configure Reporting Services to run in native
mode or SharePoint Integrated mode.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 includes report
design functionality and ReportViewer controls so that you can add full-featured
reports in your Windows Form and ASP.NET AJAX applications. Report Designer
allows you to create reports that contain tabular, aggregated, and
multidimensional data. There are two versions of the control. The ReportViewer
Web server control is an ASP.NET AJAX control used to host reports in ASP.NET
AJAX projects. The ReportViewer Windows Forms control is used to host reports
in Windows application projects. Both controls can process reports that have
been deployed to a report server (remote processing mode) or have been copied
to a computer where Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services has not
been installed (local processing mode).

·Local processing mode refers to report processing that is
performed by the ReportViewer control in the client application. All report
processing is performed in the local process using data that your application
provides. This mode provides an alternative method for viewing and rendering
reports when Reporting Services is not installed

·Remote processing mode refers to report processing that is
performed by a SQL Server 2008 or above Reporting Services report server. In
remote processing mode, the ReportViewer control is used as a viewer to render
a report that is processed on a Reporting Services report server

In Visual Studio, reports are saved as client
report definition (.rdlc) files. These files are based on the same schema as
report definition (.rdl) files published on SQL Server Reporting Services
report servers, but they are stored and processed differently than .rdl files.
At run time, the .rdlc files are processed locally, and the .rdl files are
processed remotely.

Deployment

You can freely distribute reports and the ReportViewer
controls as part of your application. Deployment requirements vary widely
depending on the control type and whether your report is configured for local
or remote processing. You can deploy locally processed and remotely processed
reports in the same application. The
ReportViewer control redistributable is a self-extracting file named
ReportViewer.exe that includes an .msi and other files. You can find
ReportViewer.exe at the following location:

Deploying an
ASP.NET application in a Web farm requires additional configuration to ensure
that view state is maintained across the farm. If you are deploying the
ReportViewer Web server control in a Web farm environment, you should specify
the machineKey
element in your application's Web.config file.

Reports that are
processed locally can be stored in a network folder or compiled into the
application executable. Reports that are processed on a remote server are
typically stored on a SQL Server “Reporting Services report server”

Report Servers

A report server is a
computer that has SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services installed. It may also be
a SharePoint site that is integrated with a report server. The report server
stores published reports, shared data sources, shared schedules and
subscriptions, and other resources. The report server system administrator can
configure the report server to process report requests, maintain snapshot
histories, and manage permissions for reports, data sources, and subscriptions.

I base the info on the following factors: scale of 1-5 with
5 being the best.

Category

Microsoft Reporting

Chrystal Reports

Ease of development

5

4

Ease of deployment

5

2

Ability to export data

5

5

Ease of support and find solutions on the web

5

3

Both reporting tools use visual studio for the development
of the Forms.

There is a problem with the deployment in our environment of
the crystal report DLL’s. The Dill is called from the COM+ object so it has to
be on the server to work. There is a conflict with installing the DLL’s due to
application conflict with another application. We are not even sure that even
if we were able to install Crystal reports on the component server the report
would work across the network with the website application on a shared server.

It seems that the SSRS Microsoft Report Services Dll is
installed on the DB and the supporting files (listed above in the deployment
section) would not be an issue on the environment we presently have. We use
Sequel server 2005 presently.

Conclusion

This finding is based on the Local processing mode .Using Microsoft Reporting which
is a part of the Sequel Server SSRS system is a good option to replace the
system we have presently in place. The report can be created using Visual
Studio to give it dynamic functionality and preform the task at hand. The
deployment should not be a problem because the required DLL are allready on the
server. The .Net Dll should convert to a COM+ component without a problem and
share across the network.